Seller: Apple Inc.
Category: Photography
Requirements: iOS 4
Compatibility: iPhone 4
File Size: 30.6MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $4.99
Available: Now
When Apple announced iMovie for the iPhone 4 at this year’s WWDC Keynote, I was delightfully surprised. However, I still remained skeptical at how well editing video could work on such a small device that doesn’t have nearly as much power as my MacBook Pro. After purchasing and using the application, though, I was once again delightfully surprised.
iMovie for iPhone is certainly a stripped down version of the iMovie you’ve grown used to on Mac OS X. In terms of editing, you can change the length of clips, reorder them, add transitions between them, change the theme, and add titles to video. That’s about it. To start using iMovie on the iPhone, you first create a new project. Themes consist of choosing one—Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, or News—and then whether you want that theme’s music on.
After this step, you are greeted with the main project window, which looks somewhat like the image above. Tapping on the gear before the timeline of videos and pictures allows you to change the theme. The button in the top left simply takes you to the app’s main screen where you can switch between projects, while the one in the top right will play the movie from wherever you happen to be in it. The bottom right opens the camera inside of the iMovie application so you can add video and pictures straight from within the app itself. Finally, the button in the bottom left allows you to add video, pictures, and audio that might be stored on your phone.
To edit a video clip or picture, you simply double tap it. The only editing you can do to images really involves repositioning/zooming the image as well as how long the image is displayed. In doing this, you can choose where the Ken Burns effect begins and ends using the Start and End buttons. If you want anything special, though, you can download a different editing app and then import it once you used that application to edit the image.
If you want to edit video clips, you have a couple more options, as seen below. Other than changing the length, you can also add titles and locations, and choose whether the audio of the clip is included. That said, the titles are fairly limited in that they go along with the theme you selected and can’t be changed to the large variety of ones you’ll remember from iMovie on the Mac. The title simply displays the text you choose as well as the location, if you want to include that. Another disappointment is in the transitions. You can choose none, a dissolve, or whichever one the theme uses, and you do have the ability to change the length. However, like with the titles, you are limited in the amount available when compared to iMovie for the Mac.
To delete clips or pictures, you can simply hold them and then drag them out of the timeline to watch them disappear with a poof of smoke. As you’d expect, reordering clips simply involves holding and dragging them around. Changing the length of clips is as easy as selecting the clip and then dragging the orange bars on either end of it.
When you are done with the project and decide you want to export it, you have three options. You can choose medium in 260p, large in 540p, or HD in 720p. Once you do this, you will see the screen below. Exporting the video doesn’t take long at all, but will obviously vary with the length of your project. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work in the background, as switching apps during this process will cause it to start over when you return. When it’s done, it will show up in your camera roll in Photos.app.
From there, you can MMS, email, or upload your project to YouTube. To see what a project looks like after being exported in HD and uploaded to YouTube, check out my short project below. As you can see, it loses a fairly large amount of quality during these processes, which is unfortunate. However, the process works flawlessly, which is one upside.
Overall, you can tell the application was made by Apple. It works fast and flawlessly, and the interface is very intuitive. My only complaint is how stripped down it is compared to iMovie on the Mac. I certainly don’t expect it to have all the features the Mac version does, but it could use some extra features such as more transitions and title abilities. It may complicate the interface a little, but I think it would be a decent tradeoff. Hopefully Apple will add more of these with future updates of the application or as in-app purchases of some sort.
I totally disagree with this rating. 4 out of 5?
The definition of intuitive is in direct contradiction to this applications interface. I personally can't believe that apple released such a mess of an application. Knowing what I know right now I would not buy this application if it were 99 cents. It can do almost nothing and is to me the opposite of intuitive. It would also be nice if the application came with a video to show you how to use it. But then again apple videos usually show you all the cool stuff about an application and since this on doesn't really have much to offer I can see why they decided against it.
Just my 2 cents, which is about what this app is worth…